Twenty-Nine Rushes

Submitted by cheesheadwolverine on

Not to poop on the parade, but is anyone else worried about whether at 193 pounds, Denard Robinson can take the physical beating of thirty rushes every week (plus any hits when he's dropping back to pass).  Most feature back are heavier than that and often don't run as often.  I'm worried both for his long-term health and, more immediately, whether he can make it through the season unscathed.  If not, can we can be the team we want to be if he misses a couple, or several, games.

uniqenam

September 5th, 2010 at 8:17 PM ^

SPREAD QBS DO NOT GET HURT LIKE A PRO-STYLE QB I HAVE STATS AND A DIARY THAT PROVE!!!!!

 

/s

 

Seriously though, makes me nervous, but thats what this offense needs to hum; I'd rather see it run at full-speed than 80% efficiency trying to keep people as healthy as possible.  Let 'em play.

jrt336

September 5th, 2010 at 8:19 PM ^

He probably couldn't go through a whole season with that many rushes a game without missing some time. But I don't think he'll run that many times in most games. 

BlueRaines

September 5th, 2010 at 8:20 PM ^

that the plan isn't to rush him 30 times per week.  I'm going to guess 15-20 rushes per game is the long-term plan based on what Pat White did his senior year at WVU (191 rushes). 

kb

September 5th, 2010 at 8:26 PM ^

that about 15 rushes a game is what he'll get long-term.  Having fewer attempts will also make his rushes overall more effective.  Not that he wasn't effective yesterday, but when he rushes with less frequency the play will work the best on the D, and it will prevent him from getting banged up.

willywill9

September 5th, 2010 at 8:20 PM ^

I dont think he will have 29 carries a game. If that is what it takes fine, but even RR would like to see him run a little less.

My guess is thst it depends on the team and schemes they play against.

Kal

September 5th, 2010 at 8:22 PM ^

The coaches need to encourage him to run out of bounds or slide more later in the games to not risk an injury. I really believe Smith and Shaw are going to have a lot more touches vs ND just to throw off BK from scheming solely around Denard.

Muttley

September 5th, 2010 at 8:42 PM ^

splitting creases that mere mortals can't get to/through.

He got through most of them with the defenders hanging on for dear life.  Of course, he also got hammered in a few of those situations (while picking up first downs/very important yardage).

I'm worried about it.  I don't think you can limit the risk other than reducing his number of carries.  With that goes some of the 197 yards.

TheOnlyVictors

September 6th, 2010 at 3:08 AM ^

I firmly beleive RichRod is going to start Forcier next game, just to throw  everyone the hell off. The wings, players calling him out, the "All you need to know is I'm out" comment, all just to throw us for a freakin loop.

Genius.

Logan88

September 6th, 2010 at 9:37 AM ^

You're obviously joking and we all know that, but wouldn't it be interesting to see Tate at QB with Cox and Hopkins at the RB spots (they also did not play against UConn) next week at ND just to totally throw the Domers off?

It would be a pretty big advantage to UM's offense to have ND prepare all week to stop UM's speedy running offense (Denard and Shaw) and wind up playing against a passing/power-run offense (Tate and Cox/Hopkins).

blueintampa

September 5th, 2010 at 8:25 PM ^

I would say he had 29 attempts this week b/c uconn couldn't stop him. If a team contains him a little more rr will call someone else's number. I think he had less that 100 attempts his senior year of high school so we really have no way of telling.

ForestCityBlue

September 5th, 2010 at 8:27 PM ^

Didn't RR say after the game that there were a few snaps where he should have, I think the approximate quote was, "taken it downfield," and unless I am mistaken, he seemed to imply that he saw a couple of instances where Denard ran when he could have passed.  It will likely be corrected in film study and practice.  Its a growth thing.  He certainly is electric, but after a while I began to wince every time he took off waiting for some angry Michigan hating deity to zap him for testing their patience with one too many...

the_dude

September 5th, 2010 at 8:29 PM ^

With it being his first start my guess is he ran it a bit more than he will when he gets more comfortable running the offense.  Rich Rod said he could have thrown more passes and I'm sure once Denard looks at the film he'll make the necessary adjustments.

Beans

September 5th, 2010 at 8:32 PM ^

I think now that he has mastered the Quaterback position it may be time to try him out on defense. Give the secondary some extra depth. After seeing him yesterday I think he could do both.

I Miss Bursley

September 5th, 2010 at 8:35 PM ^

As the O-Line and RBs continue to improve, I imagine more of those carries will get transferred over to Smith, Shaw and Co. At least I would hope so, don't like the idea of running DR that many times against some of the bigger B10 defenses.

In the meantime though let's run him 40 times and put 60 points on the board against ND. That guy is way too much fun to watch, especially after the seemingly endless times mobile QBs have done that to us.

LB

September 5th, 2010 at 8:39 PM ^

He ran all the way into the record books and the NFL. Of course, the Big 10 might not have been as physical back in those days.

switch26

September 5th, 2010 at 9:05 PM ^

There were a lot of times in the game when Drob could of passed for some pretty nice gains.. yet he chose to run.  Obviously in the next few wks after ND, he prob won't be playing that much or running nearly as much against UMASS and BG

csam1490

September 5th, 2010 at 9:21 PM ^

My budding understanding of statistics (gleaned from the hard work of mgoblog diarists) tells me U-Mptsscd = DRrshatmpt + 1(the Dilithium Constant). I am therefore untroubled and beg for more.

HenneManCrush

September 5th, 2010 at 9:45 PM ^

Since nobody has mentioned it, I'll throw this in the mix: Pat White was listed at 6'1", 191 as a senior on his ESPN player card.  That's an inch taller but two pounds lighter than what ESPN has listed.  Looking at his game log, he missed only one game in totality during his four years.  I know he did get banged up at times as I seem to remember him messing up his thumb (maybe?) against USF one year (I believe...don't feel like double-checking), but in terms of missing much PT it was not a big deal. 

 

I've heard lots of naysayers mention that he won't be able to take those sorts of hits against physical Big Ten defenses.  There may be some harder-hitting defenses near the top of the Big Ten as opposed to the Big East, but in the middle and bottom of both conferences I bet the defenses are pretty comparable.  I'm not too terribly worried about it.  Still, the fewer hard hits he takes, the better off we'll be.

Magnus

September 5th, 2010 at 11:47 PM ^

Twenty-nine rushes is definitely too much.  Spread over a 13-game season (presuming a bowl game), that's 377 carries.  For comparison's sake, the NFL record for carries in a season is 416, and that's in a 16-game schedule.  That year Larry Johnson averaged 26 carries per game.  Robinson can't keep up that pace and expect to remain healthy.  Hopefully he's able to get rid of the ball more and/or slide and/or get out of bounds.

Magnus

September 6th, 2010 at 12:04 AM ^

He's currently 6'0" and 224 lbs.  I'm sure he's added weight since college, but he was more solidly built than Robinson.

Regardless, we're not talking about one game.  We're saying that 29 carries is too many carries if he's going to do that every week.  Perry averaged 26 carries per game in that 2003 season, or 3 less per game than Robinson against UConn and 39 fewer when projected over a full season.

jmblue

September 6th, 2010 at 11:38 AM ^

One thing people should keep in mind is that Toussaint (generally considered our #1 back) was out, and Hopkins and Cox didn't play either.  My guess is as we develop more depth at RB, we won't need to give Denard quite so many carries.